AMD phenom-ii X6-1090t and X6-1055T processor review

The AMD phenom-ii X6-1090T and the X6-1055T are six core processors. The T in the end of the part number denotes the Turbo Core functionality. The phenom-ii X6-1090T is a 3.2 GHz part while the X6-1055T is 2.8 GHz part. The Turbo Core functionality allows lets you increase the on demand frequency from 3.2 GHz to 3.6GHz in case of the X6-1090T part and from 2.8 GHz to 3.3GHz in case of X6-1055T. Notice the prefix X6 in the part number of these processors – it denotes that the processor has 6 cores. By comparison the fastest 4 core processor Phenom II X4-965BE is clocked at 3.4 GHz or 200 MHz faster than the fastest 6 core processor.

The six core phenom-ii processors have a shared memory of 6 MB which is same as that of the 4 core Phenom variant.

The Memory and core i7 comparison

The phenom six core processors still have the dual channel DDR3 memory controller while intel has leaped ahead with it Core i7-980X processors by providing triple channel memory controller. Obviously the AMD suffers in memory benchmarks and throughput when pitted against Intel Core i7-980X.

Benchmarks and Comparison with Intel Core i7 processors

Since the phenom-ii X6 processors have 6 cores, they perform better when multiple threads are running simultaneously. In single threaded application their performance is not as great. Actually the performance in the single threaded applications suffer, because, the core frequency as discussed above, for the fastest 6 core phenom-ii processor is 200 MHz less than the 4 core phenom-ii.

This is evident in the Cinebench R10 single threaded and multithreaded benchmarks. While the intel core i7-860 outperforms AMD phenom-ii X6-1090T in the single threaded application, AMD wins with a good margin in the multithreaded application. The reason is clear, the 6 cores working simultaneously outperform the 4 cores.

On a similar front, the applications like H.264 video encoding requiring substantial amount of the multi threaded application have natural alignment with the 6 core phenom-ii processors. Anandtech reports encoding rate of 28.5 fps with the AMD phenom-ii X6-1090t processor as compared to the 26.8 fps for Intel’s core i7-860.

Motherboard and Sockets

The six core processor works with the existing AM2+ socket and the AM3 motherboard. So if you have an earlier 4 core phenom-ii you can just replace it with the 6 core phenom-ii – No motherboard change is required.

Power Consumption

At idle condition the phenom-ii X6-1090T consumes close to 122.5 Watts of power while the X6-1055T. The core i7-860 by comparison takes 85.4 Watts. In the load condition, the X6-1090T take 201 Watts and is comparable to the core i7 860 processor ( core i7-860 load power consumption is 180W).

Conclusion

If you are likely to use more heavily threaded applications ( like video encoding) then the six core phenom-ii is the way to go. With AMD phenom-ii you will be able to do the task and save couple of hundreds of dollars too. If however, your application is like to have only occassional use of heavy load multithreaded application, intel core i7 processor is more suitable to you.